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Monday, 28 May 2012

Dear dudes and dudettes, it seems to be summer outside and the winds are warm even up here in Sweden. We sure love the warmth up here! (Oh well, most of us at least.)

While doing the last of schoolwork for the semester I'm trying to consider what this summer will bring - it's the first time since 2004 that I will not attend Sweden's largest medieval festival The Medieval Week on Gotland. It feels a little strange but also it's like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

Honestly, I'm relieved. I will not have to spend all of this summer with the anxiety and pressure that comes out of feeling like I have to create new outfits for this Week of Weeks since I always spend it dressed up. Last year I brought one set of clothes that looks like something created on this side of the millennia. Those were the clothes I wore while travelling there and back.It's fantastic but this year I can do without it. I've also finally found a job that's not in eldercare. Where I live, it's the most common job for those of us without higher education (and those of us with some useless degree in, lets say, the humanities). Almost everyone I know has at some point had a job in nursing or eldercare. Weird, isn't it?
"No education? Here, take care of our sick and elderly!"
Not for me, not this summer.It's also strange that I know absolutely nothing about what will happen after my trip to New York at the beginning of June. I usually plan everything. Now, I know nothing.

Wrong. I know one thing.
I will enjoy this summer. I have to becauseI've fucking earned it.

Sunday, 27 May 2012

Congratulations to the wonderful Andrew Scott for winning a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actor tonight for his mindbogglingly good performance as Jim Moriarty on the BBC tv show "Sherlock"!(Wow, long sentence. Sorry.)To impress you further I can inform you that he beat both Stephen Rea (!) and his "Sherlock" co-actor Martin Freeman to the award.

I've been trying to figure out where this picture is from but have failed quite miserably. On the other hand it's very appropriate for tonight. He's so handsome I could die. It's strange how some people get you gasping for air just by looking at their picture, don't you think?Anyhooooooooo...If you haven't already I think you should take a look at Sherlock. It's a great modern take on Sherlock Holmes and everyone involved is so good it's almost ridiculous. This includes Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman but also Mark Gatiss (he and I both tweeted about Eurovision last night, he's brilliant). Gatiss also wrote the script for Sherlock together with Steven Moffat (they're more known as Mofftiss on Tumblr). Moffat is also wellknown for writing some of those emotionally damaging episodes of the revival of Doctor Who.As of now, there are two seasons of Sherlock (season three to enter production in January 2013) with three episodes in each. Every episode is about 80 minutes long which makes them more like movies than anything else.SEE THEM!EDIT:Also watch the tv show My Life In Film in which Andrew Scott is just hilarious. He's also a part of the show Blackout with Christopher Eccleston (9th Doctor). Personally, I didn't find the show itself very thrilling but Scott's performance was breathtaking. This man can play anything.

I like sitting in a cramped hall for six hours together with 150 other sweating students with an extremely high level of anxiety issues. Essays make want to jump through a window. Not my window sadly because I'm on the second floor with a barely ten feet drop to the ground. I don't have the discipline for this kind of shit. It involves a lot of sitting by a computer which can tempt me to stray to various internet pages much more interesting than religious ethics. Which of course should be what I'm writing about right now and not this.I took a year off work because I know myself to be a lazy bastard who'd rather make money than study. Knowledge is beyond awesome but it can't buy me a seat on a plane to New York. I've been working my ass off every summer since I was 16 to save up money for things I enjoy. Like the car I bought. My books. My corsets. My shoes. My movies. My comics. My... stuff.In order to have a job at all this summer I had to start working two weeks ago to introduce me to my new work assignments. It collides perfectly with the end of semester and exam weeks. So here I am. With three days to go until I have to give them my essay I have two pages and I need nine.I'm screwed.But I need to give it a try.Worst case scenario - I fail the course. Which means that I have to do it again in August. It's not the first time though.Cheers to that.

Sunday, 20 May 2012

Haha, the list of problems with Diablo III is endless it seems. Servers have been down most part of the day for maintenance and the level of rage on Battle.net is infinite. Mostly because there's no intel whatsoever about when the servers might be up and running again.I didn't give that huge pile of money to Blizzard to be stuck with an "Error 33" and just like some have pointed out on Battle.net: if single player had been available offline this wouldn't have been an issue. Lots of people don't like playing with others (I'm one of them) which means that playing online is completely useless for most of us. Blizzard needs to attend to this. They need additional servers for their millions of gamers before there's an assassionation.I want to play my game.------------------------------------Edit:I tried logging on at about 2:30PM and got an "Error 33". 7:40PM I could finally play again. The problem seems to be solved for now. We'll see what this week brings...

Saturday, 19 May 2012

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Apparently, there are a lot of people experiencing trouble with the installation of Diablo III. I've heard accounts of the installation taking somewhere between 15 minutes to 4 hours. My installation has been going on for 45 minutes with a tenth of the game installed. In other words, my installation will be over 3 hours but it might actually work. Emphasis on might.Now, if you excuse me, I'm gonna cancel my installation again because I need to go and will not leave the installation running while I'm gone. Hating this.

After much wait I finally received this precious gem and of course wanted to install it and enthusiastically slay as many monsters as I could in as little time as possible whilst staring at all the wonderful detail and amazing scenery. I’ve been longing to see what magic they’ve been creating this time and so I started installing. 1½ hour later roughly 14% had been installed. I abandoned the idea and tried again the following day with the same result.As we speak I’m making another attempt at installing my, kind of very expensive, game. It’s been 30 minutes and 7% have been installed.What am I doing wrong?Does anyone else have this problem?Why does this happen to me?Murphy's Law strikes again.

Thursday, 10 May 2012

Fandoms on Right shoe (scifi):Doctor WhoHitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyStar TrekStar WarsFireflyFandoms on Left shoe (other):SupernaturalLord of the RingsHarry PotterSherlockX-Men+ a Douglas Adams-quote on tea

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

It feels like I should say a word or two
about Diablo III and the fact that the game will finally be released from the
shackles in which it has been kept for so long, deep in the dungeons of
Blizzard Entertainment. May 15th is the big date and I’ve already pre-ordered
the Collector’s Edition which has apparently sold out in the web shop I ordered
from. It worries me that I can’t see the product in store any longer. It doesn’t
feel right. It says in the confirmation email that’s it’s a little over 6lb
heavy which made me squee like crazy. It’ll be so pretty I could die.

My relationship with Diablo started in 2001
when I borrowed the first game from a classmate (read: extorted from her) and it’s been a lasting love. I
recently dusted off that first game and took my time to enjoy all that
nostalgia that welled up from deep inside at every quest. My favourite is still
on the 14th level where you run into the Blood Knight Lachdanan who
wants nothing more than rest in peace. Find him the Golden Elixir and you’ll receive
the Veil of Steel. The Halls of the Blind is another favourite.

"I can see what you see not.Vision milky then eyes rot.When you turn they will be gone,Whispering their hidden song.Then you see what cannot be,Shadows move where light should be.Out of darkness, out of mind,Cast down into the Halls of the Blind."

Even though Diablo II’s aspirations were
larger and the story was deepened and I bought the Diablo Archive (four Diablo novels in one) it hasn’t
left the same kind of impression. As much as I wanted to try all the different
classes I got tired of it too fast. Since then, I’ve waited for Diablo III and I’ve
wasted my time with Titan Quest: Immortal Throne in the meantime. It’s a
substitute as good as any.

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

In a little more than a month I'll be going back to New York City. Last time I didn't at all get my quota of nerdiness so I'll have to make sure to make the best of it this time.Do I have a better reason than "I wanna" to go? Why, yes. Let me tell you...It's been a decade since one of my closest friends and I got to know each other. We soon realized that we were like two peas in a pod. Great minds think alike and all that. Suffice it to say that we hit it off and now, ten years later, we're still friends despite some rough spots along the way and huge differences in personalities. So we decided to celebrate with a trip to the USA... At first, it was supposed to be
Comic-Con but that didn’t work out. We didn't get any tickets. Lucky thing we had a back-up plan.New York City - you beautiful bitch. I need to see you in all your splendour without a f-ing volcano ruining
my cool. Last time I went to NYC was April 2010 - right when the volcanic eruption on Iceland grounded all air travel in most of Europe. I was lucky who got home.The only thing I’m bitter about with this trip is that we’re leaving the city when New York Pride begins
*insert irritated face here*. But, oh well.Since the number of visitors to this blog has gone up considerably in the last months I’m asking all of You:
what are the nerdiest things one can do in New York between the dates 8th to 16th
of June? Or not so nerdy things too for that matter, I’m open to suggestions. Anything to do with comics (Marvel, DC, Darkhorse), books (Harry Potter, LotR, GoT and other) and scifi (Star Wars, Star Trek) is good.